Chapter 1: Your Own Skills and Characteristics Chapter 2: Theories and Patterns of Development.

Chapter 1: Your Own Skills and Characteristics

Chapter 2: Theories and Patterns of Development

IntroductionThis chapter will help you understand the patterns of physical, cognitive, linguist, emotional, and social development of infants, children, and adolescents. Learning about theories that explain different types of development will help you understand and make predictions for behaviour. This understanding will guide you to plan appropriate activities and create positive environments to help children and adolescents achieve desired goals and behaviours.

UNIT 1 Chapter 2: Theories and Patterns of Development

Patterns of DevelopmentPhysical, intellectual, cognitive, emotional, and social aspects of human life are integrated. The sequence of development remains fairly constant in all cultures, however, the culture and environment a child is raised in can affect the speed of the child’s development. •growth refers to physical changes that can be measured•development refers to changes in skills and abilities, and to maturity

As you watch the presentation, look for connections among the types of development and for ways a caregiver might adapt the way he or she interacts with children as a result.


Principles of Development


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Principles of Development

Children around the world develop in similar ways. These patterns rely on brain stimulation to initiate and support development.


Describe an example of development that illustrates each principle. You may choose examples from your own childhood or from a child you have observed. How do institutions support these principles of development?

Physical DevelopmentPhysical development occurs over many years as children and adolescents gain control over gross and fine motor skills. •When the brain is stimulated, it forms neural connections from sensory areas to motor areas.•In early childhood, changes occur in the body’s lymphatic (defense mechanism), skeletal, and nervous systems.•Both environmental stimulation and good nutrition enable the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) to form new neural connections.

When caring for infants, it is necessary to take precautions with tender areas, such as the head and neck. Why?


Motor Development and Coordination

Physical development follows four patterns.• cephalocaudal pattern, referred to as head-to-foot sequence (lifts head before sitting or walking)

• proximodistal pattern refers to physical development from the centre of body outward, for example, gross motor skills before fine motor skills

A child’s framework for neural connections is ready for stimulation through play and social interactions, allowing further development.


Motor Development and CoordinationPhysical development (continued)• orthogenetic patterns refers to the development of simple skills before complex skills, for example, a child can draw a line, then a circle with a face

• principle of independence refers to body systems growing at different rates (rapid growth of central nervous in infancy)


Why do children’s drawings change as cognitive and motor skills develop?

Factors Affecting Growth and DevelopmentBoth nature and nurture play roles in physical development. “Nurture” means that the environment children are raised in can affect physical growth and development. Examples of nurture factors include•the availability of nutritious food•under-nutrition, which can cause difficulty in absorbing food•regular (or irregular) patterns of eating, sleeping, exercising, and organizing•exposure to drugs and alcohol


Integrated Benefits of Physical ActivityRegular physical activity has substantial physical, mental, and social health benefits, including: •maintaining a healthy skeletal system•controlling body weight•assisting functioning of respiratory and circulatory systems•helping to prevent and control mental health issues

What factors do you think make children’s participation in soccer so high?


How can secondary schools promote positive physical development?

Think Critically1. Describe two activities that could help people

in each of the following age groups develop coordination • infants • school-age children • adolescents

2. Create a timeline of physical development from infancy to adolescence. On your timeline, show when key motor skills are normally developed.


Cognitive and Linguistic Development As children and adolescents mature, they learn to use cognitive and linguistic skills to organize, connect, and retrieve knowledge through language, reasoning, problem solving, and memory. •Skill development moves from simple to complex.•Cognitive and linguistic skills do not develop in isolation from physical, social, and emotional skills.•Cognitive and linguistic skills are affected by genetics, environment influences, and personality.


How are cognitive and linguistic development related to physical development?

Cognitive TheoriesSeveral models of cognitive development based on research have been developed to help us understand how people process and organize information, develop new skills, and make new mental connections. For example,•Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Theory•Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-cultural Approach

How does poverty effect cognitive development?


Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Theory

According to Jean Piaget (1896-1980), people organize their perceptions so that they can draw from an existing schema and adapt it to new situations. This adaption is a two-step process•assimilate: for example, when going to a new school, you use the theories and experiences from previous schemas to help you fit in•accommodate: for example, as you learn more about the new school, you modify your schema to fit the characteristics of the new school


Jean Piaget’s Cognitive TheoryPiaget found that children progress through four stages of thinking.

• Sensorimotor stage: Children gain knowledge by using their senses and motor abilities to explore during the first two years. • At this stage, they learn that objects still exist

even though they cannot be seen, which is called object permanence.

• Preoperational stage: Children ages two to seven understand and manipulate the meaning of symbols (for example, a stick can be a horse). • Children at this age are egocentric, which means

they only view the world from their own perspective.


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Jean Piaget’s Cognitive TheoryStages of thinking continued:• Concrete operational stage: Children ages seven to twelve can solve problems logically, use reasoning, and understand conservation (for example, they can understand that two balls of clay can have equal mass even if one ball is rolled out flat).• Concrete objects are often used to help problem

solve.• Formal operational stage: Most teenagers can think about abstract ideas, generalize, and understand that things have more than one meaning. • Teenagers can think, plan, and create in their

head.


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Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Theory Piaget connected cognitive development to moral reasoning.

• At first, children recognize “right and wrong” as determined by authority figures.

• As children develop and think abstractly, they understand that the same rules do not fill all situations — that there is no absolute right or wrong.


Describe an example of a child’s behaviour while he or she is engaged in an activity. Explain which of Piaget’s stages of development the behaviour best illustrates.

Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-cultural ApproachLev Vygotsky (1896-1934) believed that learning takes place when people interact with their social environment. •Knowledge development in which the learner plays an active role is called constructivism.•The range between what the learner needs support with and what the learner can do is known as the zone of proximal development. This is where most learning takes place. •Children learn a new skill and progress from needing support to being able to perform the skill independently.

Lev Vygotsky emphasized the roles society and culture play in learning – a new perspective at the time.


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Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-cultural ApproachTo support optimal cognitive and linguistic development, a caregiver needs to find a balance between stimulation and allowing children to explore on their own.•Using scaffolding means the caregiver will offer the child support when needed and then allow for independent performance of skills as the skills develop.

What activities might you need a lot of support with? What activities are you able to perform independently?


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Lev Vygotsky’s Socio-cultural Approach

Once children have learned to perform a skill independently, they can apply the skill to a new context. Vygotsky called this decontextualization. Speech and language development follows this process, for example, children will use self -talk to guide themselves through a new skill.


Piaget’s theory describes specific stages of development a child passes through. How does that compare with Vygotsky’s theory of development? Do you think the two theories are in conflict or in agreement? Explain.

Information ProcessingInformation processing is a theory that focusses on how humans actively process information from the time it enters the mind to the time it is output. The process is as follows•information enters through senses (sensory memory – lasts less than a second)•information is attended to in working memory (short-term memory – lasts a few seconds)•information is saved forever in long-term memory (lasts a life time) or disappears


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Information ProcessingThe more information is saved in long-term memory, the greater ability to solve problems and process information in other ways. Metacognition will help build memory and retrieval of memory through•rehearsal or repetition, which helps build neural pathways•chunking information into smaller bits•making connections through reading, listening, talking, visuals, hands-on learningThe ability to control attention differs with age, interest, intelligence and level of hyperactivity.


Think Critically1. Suggest an example of someone you know in

each of Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development. What observations led you to believe each person was in the stage you chose?

2. Think about how you prepare for a multiple-choice test versus an essay question test. How can knowing about the information processing theory help you better prepare for each type of test?

3. In what ways can Vygotsky’s theory be used to help plan activities to develop language skills?


Intellectual TheoriesIntelligence is a complex set of characteristics and abilities that many theorists have attempted to explain. •Charles Spearman (1863-1945) developed the idea of general intelligence, describing a g factor that reflects a cluster of types of intelligence that often occur together.•Howard Gardner (1943 - ) developed the theory of Multiple Intelligences.•Robert Sternberg (1949 - ) developed Triarchic Theory of Intelligence.


Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

Howard Gardner expanded on Spearman’s idea of intellectual clusters (Myers, 2007). He listed nine types of intelligence: •Verbal-linguistic: learn by using words, whether reading, writing, or listening•Logical mathematical: learning through experiment, thinking logically to make connections and see patterns; enjoys math, design, science•Visual-spatial: learning through graphics, demonstrations, videos; uses imagination and creativity to show what they know


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Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences• Musical: excels in music and learns through music medium

• Bodily-kinesthetic: learns through hands-on experiences

• Interpersonal: learns by working with others; able to interpret what others think

• Intrapersonal: learns by working independently; setting and meeting goals

• Naturalistic: learns through hands-on experience in natural environment

• Existentialist: learns by looking beyond the obvious for deeper meaning


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Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

How could you apply Gardner’s multiple intelligences to plan how to teach multiplication to an eight-year-old?


Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory of Intelligence

Robert Sternberg believed intelligence could be looked at from three points of view. All three contribute to a person’s ability to function productively.

Sternberg's three types of intelligence. How do these compare with Gardner's multiple intelligences?


Behaviouralist Approaches to LearningBehaviouralist approaches to learning explain that behaviours are learned and changed as a result of experience. Changes in behaviour are observable and development is continual. Theorists (and their theories) include

•Ivan Pavlov (1849 -1936): Classical Conditioning •B.F. Skinner (1904-1990): Operant Conditioning•Albert Bandura (1925- ): Social Learning Theory


Ivan Pavlov and Classical ConditioningIvan Pavlov studied reflexive responses of the digestive system in animals. Dogs would salivate when they saw food. However, Pavlov noticed that they also salivated when they saw the people who brought them food and the noises associated with the food. •In Pavlov’s classical conditioning, food (the unconditioned stimulus) caused dogs to salivate (the unconditioned response). •Because the dogs heard a bell ringing when they were brought food, eventually, the bell alone (the conditioned stimulus) would cause the dogs to salivate (conditioned response). If this connection was not maintained from time to time, the response became extinct.


B.F. Skinner and Operant ConditioningB.F. Skinner built on Pavlov’s work by studying the effects of reinforcing particular behaviours. Reinforcing a desired response could allow a researcher to modify behaviour. This process is called operant conditioning. Through this process•positive reinforcement encourages the continuation of the behaviour (positive reward)•negative reinforcement discourages the continuation of the behaviour (negative punishment)

Aversive therapy (a form of operant condition) uses negative reinforcement by shocking behaviour to encourage change. Should society use operant conditioning to influence individual choice?


Albert Bandura’s Social Learning TheoryAccording to Bandura, behaviour is learned by observing models. Children learn new skills because of internal or external motivations to learn.•Internal motivation comes from within the child, for example, a feeling of satisfaction for learning something new.•External motivation is when learning is reinforced by an outside source, for example, praise from a parent or peers.


What are some external and internal reinforcements that have affected your behaviour?

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Albert Bandura’s Social Learning TheoryIn a famous study in 1961, preschoolers were divided into three groups. One group observed an adult playing with toys; another group observed an adult attacking a bobo doll; another group did not observe any model. The children were then allowed to play.•The group that observed the attack were much more aggressive than the other two groups.Bandura concluded that•children will imitate aggressive and altruistic behaviour•the environment causes behaviour•behaviour can then cause changes in the environment

A Bobo doll is inflatable and weighted so that when it is hit or punched, it falls over and then rights itself.


Think Critically1. When have you seen teachers or group leaders use

classical conditioning to get children’s attention?

2. What effective behaviouralist strategies can be used to teach skill development when coaching or leading a club?

3. Discuss methods a counsellor could use to assess the multiple intelligences of a group of young adolescents at a summer day camp? In what ways might this benefit their experience of camp?

4. You are asked to plan for a group of eight to 10-year-olds from diverse backgrounds. Describe three activities for each type of intelligence in Sternberg’s theory that you could include in your plan.


Social and Emotional DevelopmentEmotions and social skills are dependent on each other. Children may develop particular social norms such as smiling or regulating their emotions at different times, depending on the social norms or cues from their culture. In general,•children first develop feelings of happiness, sadness, and anger;•then come complex emotions such as guilt, jealousy, and contempt.Depending on social environment and cognitive development, children learn to control their emotions.•Adolescents can develop tightly controlled emotions as they learn coping strategies.


Emotional DevelopmentEmotions are connected to ongoing cognitive development. • Infants who build trust with a parent/caregiver will build trusting relationships later in life.

• Infants in an unfamiliar environment will look to their parent/caregiver as a social reference for comfort.• Between 7 and 8 months of age, some infants become

wary of strangers.• At 12 months, some infants show separation anxiety.

• In early childhood, children begin to read emotions in others and understand how their emotions affect others. Children who can regulate their emotions tend to be empathic and prosocial.


Patterns of Social and Emotional Development Emotional development refers to stages of identifying and understanding emotions. Social development also progresses in stages.•During infancy and early childhood, children form attachments and bonds to primary caregivers.•Gradually through middle childhood, they become more independent as they form multiple attachments.•Adolescents become independent from parents as they develop their own self-concept and personal identity.

The areas of the brain that deal with emotions are the frontal lobe and prefrontal cortex; the limbic area, including the amygdala and hypothalamus; and the brainstem.


The development of secure attachment is important in every culture. Infant attachment to caregivers has been studied by several researchers. •Rene Spitz (1887-1974) studied the physical and psychological effects on an infant who experienced prolonged separation from its mother because of hospitalization.•Spitz observed delays in physical, emotional, and linguistic development.


Attachment Perspectives

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John Bowlby (1907-1990) determined that infants need to be in close proximity with their caregiver in times of stress. •Bowlby found that long separations between mother and infant had a serious effect on the child’s emotional and intellectual development. •The critical period for attachment is between birth and five years of age.



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In 1969 Harry Harlow (1905-1981) studied monkeys who were separated from their mothers at birth. The monkeys were provided with a cloth substitute mother and a wire-frame-with-food substitute mother. He found that the monkeys would go to the wire frame for food, however they spent more time with the cloth substitute mother for comfort.Harlow found that monkeys raised in isolation suffered from a lack of attachment to their mother.•The monkeys were aggressive and fearful.•Females did not become nurturing mothers themselves.



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Mary Ainsworth (1934- ) observed the reaction of children with secure attachments and with insecure attachment patterns when they were left with a stranger. She found the quality of attachment formed early influenced later relationships. •Securely attached children showed stress with the stranger and quickly warmed to the mother when she returned.•Some of the children with insecure attachments showed extreme distress with the stranger and showed resistance to the mother when she returned.•Other insecurely attached children showed little emotion to the stranger and treated the stranger the same way they treated their mother.



Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) believed that sexual and aggressive drives motivate behaviour. •infants are born with an id that needs immediate gratification (for example, food and warmth) •by age two or three, the ego is established; the ego uses logic to determine behaviour (for example, a hungry child can wait for dinner)•by age five or six, the superego drives toward socially acceptable behaviours (for example, waiting to ask for a cookie) •personalities can be fixated in one stage

An individual’s personality can be thought of as an iceberg. Some aspects of personality operate in the conscious mind while others are in the unconscious mind.


Psychoanalytic Perspectives

Freud associated each stage of development with a body zone.•The id develops in the oral stage as infants put everything in their mouths as stimulation. Fixations: thumb sucking, chewing nails•The ego develops in the anal stage (age two) when they are learning to control their bowels. Fixations: emotional or obsessive •The phallic stage (age three to six) is a time of heightened genital sensitivity. (Child may compete with same sex parent for affection of opposite sex parent.)•Early to late childhood is the latency stage, with no observable physchoanalytical development.•The genital stage occurs at puberty with focus on genitals. Fixation: sexual difficulties


Freud’s Stages of Development

Erik Erikson (1902-1994) developed the psychosocial theory to address changes over a lifespan. By mastering the crisis at each stage, people become ready to proceed to the next stage.•Infants: trust versus mistrust •Toddlers: autonomy versus shame or doubt •Preschoolers: initiative versus guilt •School-age children: industry versus inferiority•Adolescents: identity versus role confusion •Young adults: intimacy versus isolation•Middle-aged adults: generativity versus stagnation •Seniors: integrity versus despair


Erikson’s Stages of Development

Alfred Adler (1870-1937) used a different model to describe social or emotional development. He suggested that•Children are born feeling inferior to physically larger people .•They strive for success and superiority as they shape their behaviours.•Feelings of inferiority can be compensated for in devious ways such as bullying or using someone to gain status.•To overcome inferiority, children must develop key skills.•If children are neglected, their goals remain unconscious.


Adler’s Stages of Development

Karen Horney (1885-1952) emphasized that the family influences children’s behaviour. •Children learn from seeing conflict and resolution within their own family as they grow up.•Neglect is the most damaging factor in a child’s development because children are then raised to feel insecure and anxious.•Circumstances of neglect can sometimes lead to neurosis as a child struggles between real self and their idealized self.•Neurotic individuals dislike themselves and become self-destructive.


Horney’s Stages of Development

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) developed a theory that organized humans’ motivation to meet basic needs in a hierarchy. The hierarchy was built as follows:•basic physiological needs, such as food, water, air•safety needs, include safe home, school, work•belonging needs, children learn social skills•self esteem needs, building confidence with praise and empathy•self actualization needs, thinking globally rather than personally

Can someone remain at the first or second level on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs?


Maslow’s Humanistic Perspectives

Carl Rogers believed that healthy individuals live in balance between who they are and who they think they should be. People who live in balance experience congruence between the self and the ideal self and possess inner strength and self-knowledge or change behaviour.

Incongruence describes having an ideal self that is different from the self you perceive. Can a person ever expect to live in congruence?


Rogers Humanistic Perspectives

Record 10 words that describe your personality. Then record 10 words that describe what you wish your personality was like. How different are your lists? Are your self and ideal self congruent or incongruent? How can you make yourself more balanced?


Humanistic Perspectives

Think Critically

1. How can you ensure a positive environment to promote healthy social and emotional development when working with children and youth?

2. If a child’s social and emotional development is slower than that of his or her peers, how could that affect the child’s cognitive and physical development? Provide a response for each of the following age groups: early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence.


Putting It All Together

In this chapter, you have•studied patterns of development from infancy to adolescence•examined theories related to physical, cognitive, linguistic, social, and emotional development•learned how to apply an understanding of development to planning age-appropriate activities and environments


Chapter 1: Your Own Skills and Characteristics Chapter 2: Theories and Patterns of Development.

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Transcript of Chapter 1: Your Own Skills and Characteristics Chapter 2: Theories and Patterns of Development.